Principles Of Political Economy
- Автор: Mill John Stuart
- Год: 2022
- Язык: английский
- Год: Strelbytskyy Multimedia Publishing
- Жанр: Политика
Электронная книга - «Principles Of Political Economy». Краткое содержание книги:
Beside discussing descriptive issues such as which nations tended to benefit more in a system of trade based on comparative advantage (Mill's answer: those with more elastic demands for other countries' goods), the work also discussed normative issues such as ideal systems of political economy, critiquing proposed systems such as communism and socialism.
Along with A System of Logic, Principles of Political Economy established Mill's reputation as a leading public intellectual. Mill's sympathetic attitude in this work and in other essays toward contemporary socialism, particularly Fourierism, earned him esteem from the working class as one of their intellectual champions.
19. Distinguish between wealth and capital. Show that there is no assignable limit to the employment of capital in bettering the condition of the members of a community.
20. “If there are human beings capable of work, and food to feed them, they may always be employed in producing something.” Explain the meaning of this fully.
21. What is meant by saying wealth can only perform the functions of capital by being wholly or partially consumed?
22. Explain and illustrate the statement that demand for commodities is not demand for labor.
23. Show that expenditure of money does not necessarily increase the demand for labor.
24. In what way would a general demand for luxuries affect productive laborers and the wealth of the community?
25. In a community where capital is all employed, what would be the effect if one employer gradually withdrew some of his capital, and spent this for personal luxuries?
26. It is contended that “the demand for commodities, which can only be got by labor, is as much a demand for labor as a demand for beef is a demand for bullocks.” Criticise this position.
27. “It is often said that, though employment is withdrawn from labor in one department, an exactly equivalent employment is opened for it in others, because what the consumers save in the increased cheapness of one particular article enables them to augment their consumption of others, thereby increasing the demand for other kinds of labor.” Point out the fallacy.
28. A college undergraduate, with the applause of shopkeepers, bought twenty waistcoats, under the plea that he was doing good to trade. Examine the economical soundness of his act.
29. A man invested a portion of his capital in a loan to a state which subsequently repudiated its debts. The man thereupon gave up his carriage, discharged superfluous gardeners, and reduced the number of his domestic servants. Examine the effect of these changes on the employment of labor in the district where he resides.
30. In the sixteenth century a great change in the mode of expenditure took place. Retainers were dismissed, households were reduced and a demand for commodities was substituted for a demand for labor. How would this change affect wages, and why?
31. It is supposed by some persons that expenditure by the rich in costly entertainments is good for trade. What is your opinion on the subject?
32. A is an absentee who spends his income abroad. B spends his income chiefly on American pictures and other works of art. C spends most of his income on American servants. D saves and buys United States bonds. E employs most of his income in the production of manufactures. Explain the various effects of these different modes of expenditure on the amount of wealth in the United States, and on the working-classes of the country.
33. Compare the economic effects of defraying war expenditure (1) by loans, (2) by increased taxation.
34. Define the term capital, and distinguish between fixed and circulating capital, giving instances of each.
35. Distinguish between fixed and circulating capital, and point out how far, or in what manner, each of the following articles belongs to one kind or the other: a dwelling-house, a crop of corn, a wagon, a load of coal, an ingot of gold, a railway-engine, a bale of cotton goods.
36. Of the following, which would you class under fixed and which under circulating capitaclass="underline" cash in the hands of a merchant, a cotton-mill, a plow, diamonds in a jeweler's shop, a locomotive, a nursery-gardener's seeds, greenhouses, manures; a carpenter's tools, woods, nails?
37. If in a country like this a large amount of capital becomes fixed in the building of railroads, what effect will this change taken by itself have upon the laboring-class, supposing the capital to be (1) domestic, or (2) borrowed wholly or in part from abroad?
38. What conclusion is reached by Mr. Mill respecting the objections to the use of labor-saving machinery?
39. Is the extension of machinery beneficial to laborers?
40. What is “the conclusive answer to the objections against machinery”?
Efficiency of Production.
41. Explain briefly the chief causes on which the productiveness of labor depends.
42. What are the principal ways in which advantage arises from the division of labor?
43. What are the principal advantages of division of labor? In what cases and why is it better to carry on a productive enterprise on a large scale?
44. Under what circumstances, and in what callings, can the division of employment be carried out to the fullest extent?
45. Show how the amount of available capital and the extent of the market for products limit division of labor.
Population.
46. Give a brief statement of Malthus's theory of population, explaining the different checks on population in different stages of civilization.
47. Enunciate Malthus's law of population, and give an outline of the reasoning by which he established it. Give an account of any objections that have been brought against Malthus's position, and criticise those objections.
48. When the growth of population outstrips the progress of improvements, what are the means of relief for the laborer?
49. Does the increased facility of emigration nullify the Malthusian law of population in your opinion or not, and why?
50. Explain the law of diminishing return and the Malthusian doctrine of population; and trace the connection between them.
Increase of Production.
51. Compare the motives to saving in the case of savages, and of a country like the United States. State the causes of diversity in the strength of the effective desire of accumulation.
52. Capital is said to be accumulated by saving; what is saving? Is hoarded money a saving while hoarded?
53. How far does the increasing productiveness of manufacturing industry tend to neutralize the effect on profits of the diminishing productiveness of agricultural industry?
54. What conclusion as to the limit to the increase of production does Mr. Mill deduce from his investigation of the laws of the various requisites of production?
Property.
55. What are the essential elements of property? Are the grounds of property in land the same as those of property in movables?
56. Give what you conceive to be the chief arguments in favor of the institution of private property, as opposed to common ownership.
57. What arguments does Mr. Mill suggest in favor of some redistribution of landed property?
58. What are the economic arguments for and against Communism?
59. In what way, and by what means, do Socialists want to alter the present distribution of wealth?
60. Sketch the principal forms of Communistic and Non-communistic Socialism.
61. Should the power of bequest be limited?
Wages.
62. On what, according to Mill, does the rate of wages depend? Hence, show the fallacy of the popularly proposed remedies for low wages.
63. State and examine the principal theories which have been put forward as to the circumstances which regulate the general rate of wages, saying which you deem to be correct, and why so.
64. Mr. Thornton argues that the wages-fund is neither “determined” nor “limited”: not “determined,” because there is no “law” to compel capitalists to devote any portion of their wealth to the payment of labor, nor are they morally “bound” to do so; and not “limited,” because there is nothing to prevent them from adding to the portion of their wealth so applied. Criticise this argument, and, if you dissent from Mr. Thornton's view, state the causes which “determine” and “limit” the fund in question.
65. State precisely what you mean by the “wages-fund,” and explain the conditions on which its growth depends.
66. Explain generally the circumstances which determine the rate of wages. Mention some of the reasons why wages should be higher in one occupation than in another.